The electricity went out shortly after the terraforming began. As it ends, we flip the light switches on and off and find no purchase. The refrigerator and freezer likewise aren’t working. My mind starts racing, thinking of the implications. As long as we keep it closed, we should have two days or so before we start having to worry about the food going bad. The faucets, however, still work fine, which means we won’t have to worry about rationing water anytime soon. No idea if the hot water is still functioning or not, but I’m going to assume not.

Our phones do turn on just fine, which gives me an idea. I go over to the refrigerator, unplug it, and then power it with my own [Ether] reserve. It works just as expected. It does drain me to an enormous extent, meaning I can only do so for a few minutes each day, and even less if I’m fighting. More impetus to continue getting stronger and advancing my knowledge of Ethertech, and in the interim, that might buy us another few hours or so of fresh food.

Chloe brings back bad news. While our phones turn on just fine, there’s no internet. The wi-fi is right out, but even 5G and basic cell signals are completely shot. If the Earth just grew by 40% in a matter of minutes, that makes sense. Satellites will be all out of alignment, GPS will have to be completely restructured from the ground up, and I doubt all the infrastructure needed to move electricity and cable around has been modified the way the water pipes (thankfully) have.

With nothing else to do inside, we head out to survey the landscape. We’re not alone in doing so; there are a couple of others outside as well. The neighborhood itself is unchanged, short of people trying in vain to get the power back on. A few lucky people do have generators. Chloe’s family, sadly, does not. Although now I wonder if I could build one. At least, in principle, I know how they work. Gasoline turns motor, motor spins around a bunch of wires, the magnetic field induces AC current. What I have no idea how to do is how to turn those basic principles into practice. More importantly, I don’t know how to get mechanical equipment to absorb ambient Ether and utilize it as a power source. Then again, if I can just build a device that converts Ether into sixty Hertz, one hundred and twenty volt electricity, I can just bypass all that. I’ll make research into that a high priority.

I climb up to the top of Chloe’s roof and the massive structure that appeared near downtown has immediately risen to the top of that priority list. As in, holy shit, why is there a tower nearly half a mile tall poking out from the horizon? I beckon Chloe up to see for herself, and she immediately gets flustered.

“I’m worried,” she says.

“About your mother?”

“About everything.” We sit down and watch the setting sun from the rooftop. “The notifications said there were going to be more and more powerful monsters. That they were going to be more direct about attacking homes and… and even children who can’t defend themselves. I can’t– I can’t save them all.”

“Is that what you want to do? Save lives?”

Chloe nods. “I realized it back in the dungeon. Those guys were assholes and creeps and made my skin crawl. I didn’t want anything to do with them. But I didn’t want them to die, and I can’t help but think that if we’d gone with them, they might not have done so.”

“Chloe, I know it’s cheesy to say it this way, but remember what they say on airplanes about putting your mask on first before you try to help others.” I pause and give her a moment. “I feel the same way you do. Maybe not to the same extent, but I feel that desire to help people deep within. Or have you forgotten that [Divine Paladin] was the first class the System offered me?”

“So what do you think is best?” she asks.

“I’ll cycle my [Ether] to give the refrigerator a little bit of uptime; I can only do this a few times, but it should help. I’d like to go to the tower, but not tonight. It’s too late, and I don’t want to roam the streets in the dark. Both because of monsters, and because of guard patrols that might see us as monsters and try to attack.

“In the meantime, I think we should pack more thoroughly this time. We might not be returning home for a few more days.” At least.

“You say that like you think we’re leaving home for good.”

“We’re both high school seniors and we were each planning to go off to college after the summer. The only difference is that we’re leaving the nest a few months sooner than we’d originally planned.”

Chloe laughs. “The only difference, right? Nothing about the world being upended twice in one week, us getting magical powers, you learning about being from a faraway world, or the world itself literally growing right under our feet?”

“Nope!” I say. “Just two best friends leaving their home and setting out to see the wide new world which awaits us!”

“That’s… So different from how you’ve been these past few days, Sera. I appreciate the studious, disciplined you that’s kept us safe and helped us navigate these first days of System Integration. But I miss the easygoing you as well.”

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“I guess it’s because I feel strangely calm tonight. Almost like this is closer to the world that my soul knows.”

“I thought you don’t believe in souls and energy and all my mom’s healing crystals and stuff. Called it a bunch of, and I quote, ‘pseudoscientific, unfounded woo designed to part the gullible from their money.’”

“Yeah, and this time last week, I didn’t believe in reincarnation, magic, or the idea that you can just touch someone and heal them. Events in the interim have met the threshold of ‘extraordinary evidence’ and have forced me to reconsider my stances.”

“Does that mean you believe in aliens now, too?”

“Well, I kind of have to, seeing as though I am one, from a certain point of view.”

“Do you think we’ll ever get to see the world you came from?”

“I don’t know. I’d like to think that we will, but something is telling me that I shouldn’t expect much.”

Chloe looks downtrodden. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay. Do you want to head inside? I’d like to be productive for a bit before it gets too dark to work.”

Chloe nods. We head in and I begin my analysis of the glyphs in Chloe’s robes while she watches. To call them a marvel of engineering by conventional standards would be an understatement, and yet, I’m sure the true capabilities of Ethertech are far beyond what I can envision. They perfectly incorporate both flexibility and rigidity, able to be flexible while walking around in them, then turning rigid when impacted sufficiently hard. Absolutely fascinating.

I get an idea. I note the two principal glyphs found in the lattice structure woven into the fabric and copy them down as best I can on a sheet of paper. This didn’t work last time, and I think I understand why. These glyphs don’t do anything on their own. They only shape Ether in order to create the effects inherent in the armor.

This time, I trace a sluice into and out of the glyph and, using my [Basic Ether Manipulation], channel a small bit of my own [Ether] into the paper, envisioning it following the patterns of the sluice line. It does nothing, but I’m undeterred. I try the same process with the other prominent glyph and I have success. As soon as I activate the glyph, the piece of paper immediately stiffens. I hold it up to Chloe, who looks at it with bemusement rather than astonishment.

“What?” she asks. “Did you figure something out?”

“Try to push it aside,” I say.

She tries and fails to do so. She pushes a bit harder and again finds no success. She stands up and puts a significant amount of her body weight behind her. She manages to snap the paper in two right next to my fingertips. The main part of the sheet, with its now deactivated glyph, falls to the ground, sending Chloe stumbling face-first onto the table. I catch her at the last second, but my aim is a little off, and I end up holding her by the chest instead of the stomach. I immediately pull away and the two of us both look away from each other. She’s blushing, and my hand feels strangely warm.

“Uh, sorry about that,” I say. “But you saw how difficult it was to move that paper, right? It was like trying to snap a piece of metal. Thin metal, but metal nonetheless.”

“So what are you going to do with it?”

“Hmm… I do have an idea. Do you have a spare pair of gloves lying around?”

“I think there’s some in my mom’s closet. Give me just a second.”

While she does, I do one more experiment, drawing two of the glyphs that I am calling [Barrier] on another sheet of paper. I note that I get more apparent rigidity, but have to spend additional [Ether] to maintain the functionality. In addition to the tradeoff of not being able to keep the glyphs activated for nearly as long, there’s an inherent downside to being overly rigid. First is inflexibility and restriction of movement. Secondly, anything too rigid becomes brittle and easier to shatter, as Chloe had just demonstrated. Balance is important. With a greater array of glyphs at my disposal, I can eliminate these weaknesses, but for now, I have to be judicious with my crafting.

I settle on two glyphs which I trace onto each glove. Unfortunately, this proves too problematic for trying to maintain the shape as the glove bends in three-dimensional space. Even drawing the glyphs on the palms and backs of the hands proves challenging.

I get around this problem by sewing a thin strand in roughly the correct shape, and making sure I leave little bits of slack in the fabric after each stitch. Then, with my [Basic Ether Manipulation], I envision my Ether taking the string and guiding it along in the perfect shape. A few more stitches to fix all the curves in place and I have something that I think will work. At least, better than nothing.

I put the gloves on and activate them. They immediately stiffen. Thankfully, they don’t tighten and restrict blood flow to my hands, but it’s not the most comfortable thing I’ve ever seen. I turn to Chloe and ask her to whack my hands as a test. She hesitates, but eventually finds a plastic ruler to do so. I activate the gloves, noting the drain on my [Ether] to be just under 10 units per second after factoring in my regeneration, and wait.

Chloe whacks at me. I grimace out of instinct, anticipating the sting, but I am instead astonished when she flies backward into the couch behind her. I’m able to catch her, but not before the two of us collapse into the loveseat, thankfully with no more hands ending up in compromising locations.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said you made some improvements. I’m seriously impressed!”

I nod. “Sadly, it’s the best I can do until I get a better feeling for Ethertech crafting. It still has to be activated, and the [Ether] drain is significant. But in a pinch, or in the middle of a fight, they’ll do quite nicely. I’ll make you a pair as well, if you’d like.”

Chloe nods. As she heads off, I get a System notification.

[You have crafted [Low-Grade Barrier Gauntlets]. Defense +1. In addition to their minimal defensive utility, these gauntlets, crafted by an inexperienced technician, have an additional function. At will, the user may channel their [Ether] into them to create the effect of [Barrier] as per the spell (Rank I). Cost: 10 [Ether] per second. Effect lasts until dismissed (at will) or until user’s [Ether] is exhausted.]

My first true piece of Ethertech. And I feel great.